Vara (to be) in Swedish

In Brief

Swedish vara means “to be.” In the present tense, är covers English “am,” “is,” and “are”; in the past, var covers both “was” and “were.” The form never changes with the person: jag är, du är, hon är, vi är, and de är.

Overview

Vara is an essential A1 verb. It connects a person or thing with an identity, description, profession, or location: Ali är min granne (“Ali is my neighbor”), Kaffet är varmt (“The coffee is hot”), and Vi är hemma (“We are at home”). It is also central to expressions about weather, time, and general situations, especially with det: Det är kallt (“It is cold”).

The verb is irregular, meaning that its forms cannot be predicted from the usual Swedish verb patterns. Fortunately, Swedish does not conjugate verbs for different persons. English requires “I am,” “she is,” and “they are,” but Swedish uses är in every case. The same simplification applies in the past: both “I was” and “they were” use var.

The beginner rule is therefore short: learn vara – är – var and use the same tense form after every subject. A subject is the person or thing that the sentence is about. Later, you can add varit (“been”), learn adjective agreement after the verb, and distinguish är from finns (“exists/is available”).

How It Works

The main forms

Form	Swedish	Basic English meaning	Example
Infinitive	vara	to be	Jag vill vara hemma. — I want to be at home.
Present	är	am, is, are	De är här. — They are here.
Past (preterite)	var	was, were	De var här. — They were here.
Supine	varit	been	De har varit här. — They have been here.
Imperative	var	be!	Var försiktig! — Be careful!

The infinitive is the basic dictionary form, equivalent to “to be.” It often follows att (“to”) or another verb: Det är roligt att vara här (“It is nice to be here”) and Hon vill vara läkare (“She wants to be a doctor”). After modal verbs such as vill (“want to”), Swedish normally omits att.

The supine is the form used after har or hade to build perfect tenses. In everyday terms, har varit means “has/have been,” while hade varit means “had been.” Do not use var after har.

One form for every person

Subject	Present	Past
jag (I)	jag är	jag var
du (you, singular)	du är	du var
han/hon/den/det (he/she/it)	han/hon/den/det är	han/hon/den/det var
vi (we)	vi är	vi var
ni (you, plural or formal)	ni är	ni var
de (they)	de är	de var

Unlike English, Swedish has no separate equivalents of “am” and “are.” This also means that the subject is important: är alone does not tell the listener whether you mean “I am,” “you are,” or “they are.” Swedish normally includes an explicit subject.

Statements, negatives, and questions

A basic statement has the order subject + vara + rest of sentence:

• Maja är sjuk. — Maja is ill.
• Vi var i Malmö. — We were in Malmö.

In a simple main clause, inte (“not”) normally comes after the finite verb (the verb carrying the tense):

• Maja är inte sjuk. — Maja is not ill.
• Vi var inte i Malmö. — We were not in Malmö.

For a yes/no question, put the verb before the subject:

• Är Maja sjuk? — Is Maja ill?
• Var ni i Malmö? — Were you in Malmö?

With a question word, the question word comes first, then the verb, then the subject: Var är bussen? (“Where is the bus?”). Notice that the first var here means “where,” while är is the verb. In Var var bussen? (“Where was the bus?”), the first var means “where” and the second is the past tense of vara. They are spelled alike but do different jobs.

Identity, profession, and category

Use vara to say who or what someone or something is:

• Det är min syster. — That is my sister.
• Oskar är svensk. — Oskar is Swedish.
• Sara är ingenjör. — Sara is an engineer.

Swedish usually has no indefinite article before a profession, nationality, religion, or similar role when you simply classify someone. English says “She is a doctor,” but Swedish normally says Hon är läkare, not Hon är en läkare. An article becomes possible when the noun is modified or presented as a particular kind of person: Hon är en mycket erfaren läkare (“She is a very experienced doctor”).

Descriptions and adjective agreement

An adjective is a describing word such as “tired,” “large,” or “cold.” An adjective after vara generally agrees with the subject. Swedish agreement is especially visible with ett words and plurals:

Subject type	Example	English
en-word / person	Stolen är gammal.	The chair is old.
ett-word	Huset är gammalt.	The house is old.
plural	Stolarna är gamla.	The chairs are old.
plural	Husen är gamla.	The houses are old.

The verb itself stays är; only the adjective changes. With weather, the formal subject det requires the neuter form: Det är kallt, Det är mörkt, Det är varmt.

Location

Use vara for the location of a known or identified person or thing:

• Nyckeln är på bordet. — The key is on the table.
• Barnen är i skolan. — The children are at school.

This is different from introducing the existence of something with det finns: Det finns en nyckel på bordet means “There is a key on the table.” If the listener already knows which key you mean, Nyckeln är på bordet tells where it is.

Time, weather, and general situations

Swedish frequently uses det är where English uses “it is”:

• Det är måndag. — It is Monday.
• Det är sent. — It is late.
• Det är kallt ute. — It is cold outside.
• Det är svårt att förstå. — It is difficult to understand.

Here det is sometimes a formal subject: a grammatical placeholder rather than a specific object. Do not omit it just because it has little concrete meaning.

Examples in Context

Swedish	English	Note
Jag är lärare.	I am a teacher.	Profession without an article
Hon är trött efter jobbet.	She is tired after work.	Description
Det är kallt i dag.	It is cold today.	Weather with det
Vi var hemma igår.	We were at home yesterday.	Past tense
Är du redo?	Are you ready?	Yes/no question
Var ni på museet?	Were you at the museum?	Past-tense question
Jag är inte hungrig.	I am not hungry.	inte follows the verb
Mina glasögon är i väskan.	My glasses are in the bag.	Location of a known item
Huset är stort, men rummen är små.	The house is large, but the rooms are small.	Neuter and plural adjective forms
Klockan är halv åtta.	It is half past seven.	Swedish clock time; literally “half eight”
Det har varit en lång dag.	It has been a long day.	Perfect tense with varit
Hon vill vara ensam en stund.	She wants to be alone for a while.	Infinitive after vill, without att
Var försiktig på isen!	Be careful on the ice!	Imperative
När jag var liten bodde vi i Umeå.	When I was little, we lived in Umeå.	Past state in a time clause
Det är bra att du är här.	It is good that you are here.	General evaluation plus a clause

Common Mistakes

Changing the verb for different persons

• Wrong: Jag är, men de are.
• Right: Jag är, och de är.
• Why: Swedish uses är for every person. Never insert an English form into the Swedish pattern.

Adding an article before a simple profession

• Less natural for simple classification: Hon är en läkare.
• Natural: Hon är läkare.
• Why: A bare profession after vara normally has no en or ett. Use an article when the noun has a description: Hon är en skicklig läkare (“She is a skilled doctor”).

Putting inte before the verb in a main clause

• Wrong: Jag inte är trött.
• Right: Jag är inte trött.
• Why: In an ordinary main clause, inte follows the tense-carrying verb. Subordinate clauses have a different pattern: Jag säger att jag inte är trött (“I say that I am not tired”).

Using var after har

• Wrong: Vi har var där.
• Right: Vi har varit där.
• Why: After har, use the supine varit, not the past form var.

Forgetting adjective agreement

• Wrong: Huset är stor. / Bilarna är stor.
• Right: Huset är stort. / Bilarna är stora.
• Why: The adjective after är agrees with an ett noun or a plural subject, even though är itself never changes.

Using är when you mean “there is/are”

• Wrong: Det är många caféer här when introducing their existence.
• Right: Det finns många caféer här.
• Why: Det finns introduces what exists or is available. Är identifies or locates something already specified: Caféet är här (“The café is here”). In some contexts det är can introduce or point something out, but det finns is the safe beginner choice for neutral “there is/are.”

Usage Notes

In everyday speech, är is unstressed very often. Its pronunciation may sound shorter and less distinct than careful dictionary pronunciation, but the spelling remains är. You may also hear de är pronounced roughly like dom e. Standard writing still uses de är; informal messages sometimes reflect speech, but learners should first master the standard form.

English uses “to be” in the continuous verb construction, as in “I am working.” Swedish does not normally copy this structure with vara. The ordinary Swedish sentence is Jag arbetar or Jag jobbar (“I am working/I work”), not Jag är arbetar. Swedish can emphasize an action in progress with other constructions, but there is no general är + present verb pattern equivalent to English.

Be careful with clock time. Klockan är halv åtta means 7:30, literally “the clock is half eight”: Swedish counts toward the coming hour. This is a vocabulary and convention issue rather than a special form of vara, but it frequently occurs in beginner sentences with är.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of the following at A1, but these forms make vara a complete building block for later Swedish.

Perfect, pluperfect, and future meaning

Meaning	Swedish pattern	Example
has/have been	har varit	Jag har varit sjuk. — I have been ill.
had been	hade varit	Jag hade varit där förut. — I had been there before.
will be	ska vara / kommer att vara	Mötet ska vara här. — The meeting will be here.
would be	skulle vara	Det skulle vara lättare. — It would be easier.

Ska vara often suggests a plan, expectation, instruction, or reported claim. Kommer att vara more directly predicts a future state. The distinction depends on context and is not always as sharp as a simple English translation suggests.

Word order in subordinate clauses

In a subordinate clause—a clause that depends on another part of the sentence—inte normally comes before the finite verb:

• Main clause: Han är inte hemma. — He is not at home.
• Subordinate clause: Jag vet att han inte är hemma. — I know that he is not at home.

This contrast belongs to broader Swedish word order, but vara is a useful verb for noticing it.

Temporary and permanent states

Some languages use different verbs for permanent identity and temporary condition. Swedish does not make that division: vara covers both Hon är svensk (“She is Swedish”) and Hon är trött (“She is tired”). Context and the description itself tell you whether the state is lasting or temporary.

Present participle and formal uses

The present participle (a verb form often ending in English “-ing”) is varande, but it is much less central than är, var, and varit. It occurs mainly in formal expressions such as nuvarande (“current,” historically related in form) and phrases like för närvarande (“at present”). Do not use varande as a normal replacement for English “being” in every sentence; Swedish often restructures the expression instead.

The imperative var appears in common instructions and wishes: Var tyst! (“Be quiet!”), Var snäll och stäng dörren (“Please close the door,” literally “Be kind and close the door”), and Var rädd om dig! (“Take care of yourself!”). These are ordinary, useful expressions even though commands with “be” may feel less frequent than statements.

Practice Tips

1. Build a five-purpose set. Write one sentence each for identity, profession, description, location, and weather. Then change every är to var and add a past-time phrase such as igår (“yesterday”).
2. Drill three transformations. Start with Du är hemma. Turn it into the negative Du är inte hemma, the question Är du hemma?, and the past Du var hemma. Repeat with different subjects until the word order feels automatic.
3. Notice the companion words. When reading Swedish, mark every är, var, and varit. Check whether the next information is a noun, adjective, location, or part of a fixed det är expression. This trains meaning as well as conjugation.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Personal Pronouns — learn the subjects used with är and var.
• Next step: Det finns (There is/are) — contrast existence with identity and location using vara.
• Next step: Formal Subject “Det” — understand det in weather, time, and general evaluations such as Det är viktigt.